The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 128

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#128. Fatigue

“They just keep pouring out in the most repulsive way.”

The enemies swarmed with such horrifying density that I could probably kill about ten of them with a single shot fired blind with my eyes closed.
Even veteran Soldiers accustomed to combat wore expressions of disgust at the sheer, overwhelming numbers they faced.
It wasn’t that they hesitated to fire for fear of wasting ammunition—they had to cease firing to forcibly cool gun barrels overheated from excessive continuous discharge.
That the Soldiers traversing northward across North America aboard Atlas and advancing eastward were all growing weary of the enemy’s numbers was, in a sense, inevitable.
Because of the mobile Fortress’s combat style of deliberately drawing attention as it moved, every Corrosion Entity across the United States—and even those in the Canadian regions to the north—were converging toward Atlas’s position.
Now, before they could even eliminate all visible swarms of Corrosion Entities in one area, newly arriving ones filled the void in plain sight.
Naturally, proper rest was nothing but a distant dream.
As days passed, Sung-jun began to feel a growing sense of burden watching the Soldiers grow increasingly haggard.

“It seems you didn’t sleep properly last night.”

When my mana phantom spoke with concern, the Guard shook his head.

“There’s no need to worry. I got as much sleep as I needed.”
“Was the Silence magic I cast again in the sleeping quarters ineffective?”

I had even cast Silence magic throughout the entire dormitory to block external noise for Soldiers resting in the internal rest areas after their shifts, but the effect proved limited.
No matter how thoroughly external sounds were blocked, it was never easy to cleanly erase from one’s mind the images of enemies that had filled their vision mere moments before.
The Soldiers who had spent eight hours straight watching insectoid Corrosion Entities charge relentlessly toward the Fortress even under torrential mana cannon fire found themselves plagued by nightmares even while lying in comfortable beds with sound-dampening magic—nightmares of insectoid Monsters swarming so densely they covered the massive Atlas’s hull, forcing their way through gaps in the mobile Fortress and breaching into the dormitory itself.
Such nightmares haunted them night after night.
Realizing the situation was deteriorating, I convened an emergency meeting with the Commanders stationed at the Fortress.

“Everyone seems to be suffering from fatigue due to the overwhelming enemy numbers. As the one responsible, I want to do whatever I can to help.”

Despite my concerns, the Commanders of each shift shook their heads dismissively, denying my assessment.
While they did feel fatigue, the current situation wasn’t dire enough for them to consider it a serious problem.

“In truth, fatigue isn’t a major issue.”
“Is that so? I think it’s a serious one.”
“No matter how exhausted we are, we still maintain an overwhelming advantage over the enemy. Inside a Fortress that won’t even be scratched no matter how fiercely they bite, we fire powerful mana cannons from a distance that can kill dozens of enemies with a single shot. We’re in a safe gun emplacement with no risk of injury or death. That provides tremendous psychological stability.”

The greatest sense of security the Soldiers felt came from their elevated position atop the towering artillery platforms afforded by Atlas’s overwhelming size.
With leg lengths approaching twenty meters, Atlas’s mana cannons were positioned on the fortress body—the main structure corresponding to the upper torso—allowing them to rain fire down upon the Surface, creating a devastating advantage.
It was work that granted a peculiar sense of safety, almost like firing at virtual enemies in a game world where the danger of death felt almost nonexistent.

“So the fatigue Sung-jun is concerned about is likely psychological rather than physical. Even in a safe space attacking helpless enemies, conducting such work continuously for eight hours a day produces something quite… how should I put it… a profound sense of revulsion.”

The Guard described the sensation as akin to walking through a space teeming with cockroaches while wearing thick boots.
Though no physical sensation registered, the burden of witnessing those horrific sounds and sights continuously seemed to weigh heavily upon the mind.

“Could that be precisely what the enemy is targeting?”

At Sung-jun’s words, the other Commanders turned toward him with startled expressions.

“You’re suggesting they’re sacrificing countless subordinates merely to inflict psychological fatigue?”
“It’s not without possibility. If they’ve been observing how we’ve fought thus far, deducing that the mana cannons mounted on Atlas possess nearly infinite ammunition wouldn’t be particularly difficult.”

Indeed, the mana required to move Atlas’s massive frame and the mana consumed by the interception cannons the Soldiers operated were both supplied by drawing mana dispersed throughout the space rather than from Sung-jun’s own reserves, making it theoretically possible to fire the cannons almost without limit until he lost consciousness.
Of course, after firing the ultra-high-output massive mana cannon mounted on Atlas’s left arm, a brief cooldown was necessary while the depleted mana replenished, but the consumption of the smaller interception cannons could be sustained indefinitely without any cooldown.
From the battles thus far, this could be sufficiently inferred, and Sung-jun, judging that the enemy’s strategy wasn’t aimed at depleting their ammunition reserves, suspected instead that the overwhelming numbers deployed might constitute psychological pressure rather than tactical necessity—a theory the Commanders dismissed with shaking heads, insisting such an approach would be inefficient.

“Wouldn’t that be terribly inefficient?”
“If the enemy were a creature concerned with efficiency, perhaps. But the enemies appearing on the North American continent resemble insects far more than beasts. From their perspective, we might be no different from wasps invading a hive where the queen dwells.”
“If those countless sacrifices serve to protect the queen, it makes sense. If preserving the queen is more important than the loss of every available worker bee…”
“Then we must fight endlessly against these countless insectoid monsters until we reach the Eastern Region and stand before the Level 9 Corrosion Entity?”

Even the Commander who had moments earlier dismissed the matter as insignificant now wore an expression of exhaustion—the stress the Soldiers endured was clearly not to be taken lightly.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Sung-jun addressed the Commanders.

“It’s manageable. If psychological stress is the problem, there’s a simple solution.”
“What would that be?”
“I’ll cast a mental spell. If their objective is to inflict psychological stress upon the Soldiers aboard Atlas, they’ll soon realize they’ve chosen the wrong target.”

***

I had cast three types of mental spells upon the Soldiers.
The first spell was ‘Illusion Magic’ cast upon the Soldiers operating the mana cannons mounted on the mobile Fortress.
The effect of that magic made the Soldiers sitting in the turrets perceive the landscape before their eyes not as reality, but as if they were viewing game graphics.
The second spell was ‘Emotion Regulation Magic’ cast upon the Soldiers waiting in the rest areas within the Fortress, who were not asleep.
This spell, which forcibly activated dopamine receptors in the brain, had the effect of manipulating the resting Soldiers so they felt intense pleasure even from small joys.
A spell that adjusted emotions that would normally feel ‘adequately satisfying’ to instead feel the intense joy of consuming Michelin three-star cuisine.
Unlike spells that made emotions themselves more sensitive, this spell only enhanced the feelings of ‘joy’ and ‘happiness’, so the Soldiers who entered the rest area after finishing grueling, tedious battles could instantly savor happiness and enjoy their rest time.
The last was a forgetting spell that cleanly erased the memories and emotions experienced by the Soldiers lying in bed during the long eight-hour combat.
As if the battle that occurred today had never existed from the beginning.
With the effect of the sound-blocking spell I had cast beforehand combined with the spell to erase bad memories, the Soldiers lying in bed could all fall into deep sleep with happy expressions on their faces.

“The effect is truly remarkable.”

Observing the Soldiers’ atmosphere, which had completely changed just one day after I cast the spells, a Commander-rank Guard spoke up.
Then I, standing nearby watching over the Soldiers, nodded and responded.

“It’s a good spell for combat, but maintaining it for too long won’t be advisable.”
“Why is that?”
“To fight properly, a certain amount of fear and tension are necessary. Soldiers with their sense of crisis deleted tend to fail to properly perceive the dangers they face. Nevertheless, the reason I cast this spell is because I judged that the current combat situation, aside from mental stress, isn’t particularly threatening.”

I had accepted the dulling of tension to elevate the Soldiers’ condition because I judged that a brutally cruel battle awaited at the end of this tedious fight.
Not because it was tedious and repulsive, but a battle they must desperately endure to survive.
A battle where they must fight for their lives against Monsters that had penetrated the external Fortress Wall of Atlas itself—solid as solidity incarnate—and entered within.
A battle where they must force their exhausted bodies to move before dying comrades and drive bullets into the enemy’s flesh.
I believed that a terrible battle awaited them—one that would make them long for the ‘peaceful’ battle currently unfolding.

“That’s quite a confident conjecture. Is there a reason you think so?”
“Because the type of Corrosion Entity that appeared in the United States has the worst matchup against Mages.”
“If it’s worst for Mages….”
“A war of attrition through infinite numbers.”
“Really? I thought Mages were incredibly strong in one-versus-many combat.”
“What I meant wasn’t combat against multiple opponents. I’m talking about a situation of fighting against truly ‘infinite’ enemies.”

Just as Silermantis was the natural enemy of Mages because of its near-infinite regeneration and adaptation abilities, an enemy count that was effectively infinite itself imposed a war of attrition on Mages equivalent to fighting an existence with regenerative power on par with Silermantis.
Of course, a Mage capable of using planet-destroying spells could theoretically erase an entire region from the map, but the problem was that if the planet vanished, the Mage themselves wouldn’t survive either.

“Even if I can operate mana from surrounding space to enable near-infinite spell usage like I do, there are limits. As long as a Mage is human, they must sleep and eat. Of course, it’s possible to handle it magically, but I can’t repeat that forever. Eventually, I’ll grow tired, and the enemies will aim for that moment.”
“You mean they’ll aim for the moment when you, who operates Atlas rather than as a Soldier, collapse from exhaustion?”
“Probably.”

The Guard conversing with Sung-jun imagined that scenario in his mind and his expression twisted with dread.
From the very beginning, the existence of this colossal mobile fortress depended entirely on Sung-jun, so he understood all too well what it would mean if Sung-jun collapsed.
Sensing the Guard’s thoughts, Sung-jun offered a bitter smile and spoke.

“I won’t collapse easily. I’m already using magic to supplement fatigue recovery, and I’ve resolved the sleep issue to some degree through magic as well.”
“Now that you mention it, how exactly are you handling the sleep problem?”
“I’m forcibly dividing my brain into multiple sections and sleeping in rotation. It’s an incantation created by one of my Previous Masters, who had to fight for an entire month without sleep in the past.”

Countless spells were continuously restoring my body and mind to counteract the mental and physical collapse caused by endless mana manipulation.
The problem was that while these recovery spells could heal wounds to the body and psyche, they could not restore damage inflicted upon the soul itself.
Ultimately, I already knew my limits would arrive during this battle, and I also knew that moment would be when the true combat with our enemies began.

“Therefore, you must recover your condition as much as possible while you have the chance to rest, and prepare for the coming battle. You’ll need to defend the collapsed mobile fortress and repel the incoming enemies while I withdraw from the Battlefield and take forced rest. The reason the Hive Hornet, our aerial carrier, is gathering survivors in the Southern United States and constructing massive Golem units is precisely for this purpose.”
“So you’re saying that before this war ends, we’ll have to face the enemies at least once without your support and the mobile fortress’s assistance? By combining forces with the Hive Hornet’s steel Golem legions operating in the south?”
“That’s correct.”
“Damn. So that alcohol you shared with us that night wasn’t free after all.”
“This is a post-Apocalypse situation. In times when even a single beer is hard to come by, you drank that precious liquor—so you’ll have to pay the price.”

Watching Sung-jun speak as if joking, the Guard smiled.
Then he looked at Sung-jun with a serious gaze and asked.

“The moment we’re scheduled to rendezvous with the Hive Hornet will probably be that point in time—how much time remains, in terms of hours?”
“About a week. That’s how long I can endure from here on.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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